Darrell “Pete” Witte, 87, of Pierre and formerly of Faulkton, passed away Tuesday, August 26, 2025, at the Faulkton Senior Living.

Mass of Christian burial will be 10:30 a.m., Saturday, August 30, 2025, at St Thomas the Apostle Church, Faulkton, SD, with Fr. John Short presiding. A wake service will be 7:00 p.m., Friday, August 29, 2025, at the church with visitation one-hour prior.

Darrell “Pete” Witte was born November 2, 1937, to Art and Mildred Witte at their farm in Hand County. They later moved north of Orient, where he attended school.  Pete joined the Navy the day after he turned 17 years old. He served as a Radioman Second Class on the USS Walton destroyer escort.  It was fun having him tell us how our name sounded in Morse code.  His ship was involved in atomic weapons testing.  Though this testing and his service to our country led to the cancer that took his life, he was recognized in October of 2023 by receiving the Atomic Veterans Commemorative Service Medal for his participation in these tests.

After his time in the service, he returned to the Faulkton area, where he worked for Bachmeyer Lumber. Later, he and Delbert Wild ran the local Texaco Service Station.  He shared with us that if a kid came in with a bicycle, he would drop what he was doing, fix the bicycle tire, thank them for coming, and not charge them.  He would often give them a candy from behind the counter. He hoped that when they grew up, they would come in for lunch, which we all know he would thoroughly enjoy visiting with them and swapping stories.

On March 2, 1965, he married Mary Catherine Weideman.  He and Mary were quickly blessed with four daughters within 5 years of being married!  From this moment on, his life was spent being outnumbered by any family vote.  After moving to Pierre in 1976, they made many family memories boating, where he would spend all day as the boat captain, dragging the girls and any friends on skis or tubes, while Mary served as the beach supervisor.  Not having any boys, his girls got to learn a lot from him, like how to change the oil and tires on their cars, drive fun cars, and ride motorcycle. He was not only a father of 4 girls, but also a father figure to a lot of the girls’ friends.

In addition to being at the beach, he worked with Paul Worm at Triple A Well Drilling.  Later, he went to work as the Pesticide Specialist with the Division of Regulatory Services for the South Dakota Department of Agriculture.  Following retirement from the State, he kept busy delivering oxygen for PSI, providing maintenance for the Pierre Mall, providing neighborhood watch through his window, and always enjoyed spending time visiting with anyone who would take the time.  For those who took the time, his door and heart were always open for conversation.  He was quite the storyteller, and later in life, we found out some of them were true!  Like the military investigation that verified he actually did join the Navy the day after turning 17 and WAS involved in atomic bomb testing.  And that he rode a steer back-to-back with Duane Smith, which Smitty recently verified as also being true. He claimed to have ridden bulls, bareback, and raced cars, and didn’t break a bone doing any of those. Maybe he actually did?!

Pete will be forever loved by his wife, Mary of Faulkton; four girls: Deb Witte (Chuck Cooper) of Sioux Falls, Tina (Bryon) Henningsen of Pierre, Dawn (Kelly) Melius of Faulkton, and Tami (John) Haman of Chester.  He will be missed by his grandchildren: Casey Cooper (Summer Sones) of Box Elder, Corey Cooper (Ashley Bonebright) of Hartford, Levi Broer of Ridgeland, Wisconsin, Sarah (Max) Mitchell of Thomasville, Georgia, Taylor (Dustin) Poor of Aberdeen, soon to be Faulkton, Lane Melius (Shauna Pauli) of Faulkton, Jaden Melius (Trinity Kindt) of Faulkton, Chase Melius of Faulkton, Cody Haman of Marion, Chas Haman of Garretson; his great grandsons:  Odin Mitchell, Ivan Mitchell, and Raylan Poor; his siblings and spouses: Burt and Pauline Witte, Judy and Duane Smith, Chuck and Bridgette Witte, Mary Ann Worm, Gordon and Karen Witte.

Pete was preceded in death by his parents, Arthur and Mildred Witte; father and mother-in-law, August and Elaine Weideman; siblings and in-laws: Charles and Ardyce Hadrick, Jim and Donna Witte, Patty Meier, and Paul Worm; nephews, James Worm and Charles Witte; and great-nephew, Shadoe Pfiefer.

Luce Funeral Home of Faulkton has been entrusted with Pete’s arrangements.